Kotoura-san Discussion Thread

[FUNiOP]

琴浦さん

A school love comedy. Kotoura Haruka is a 15-year-old girl who can read people's minds. She has been suffering from troubles caused by her mind-reading ability, and her parents got divorced as a result. She moves to a new high school but tries to keep away from her classmates. Manabe Yoshihisa, one of her classmates, accepts and appreciates her ability and she begins to interact with her friends with his help.

Animation studio: AIC Classic

ANN Entry
Official Site
Crunchyroll stream


Note
Please follow these rules when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please respond to the root post (this post) and indicate in the subject line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please respond to that post (or a relevant reply to that post). Keep in the right subthread.
3) Don't use the blue "Post Reply" button because it causes your reply not to correctly inherit the subject line of the post you're replying to. Just click "Quote" to the post you want to reply to.

[FUNiOP]

Quite the turnaround from the depressing first half of the episode to what appears to be the rest of the series. I guess that was a bit of a troll beginning, but it looks like they'll be keeping some of that serious background material to build the characters and their stories throughout the rest of it. It's definitely nothing special, but this season doesn't seem to have much to offer, so I'm sure just being alright is enough that I'll watch every episode.

[Fencedude]

Wow.

I was expecting nothing from this show and it ends up delivering one of the best first episodes of the season. Really amazing voice work from Kanemoto Hisako as well.

THE SUFFERING

[HitokiriShadow]

Uh well. That sure was some backstory. Goddamn, Haruka's face after her mother shoves her away is one of the most heartbreaking things ever. The backstory left a bit to be desired in execution and was perhaps a bit excessive (particularly the cat part), but boy it sure does grab you.

The show was very cute once it got back to the present. That was an amusing way of getting her attention and the scene in her apartment was pretty cute. Very good first episode overall.

The seiyuu cast for this is interesting, I think. We have Kanemoto (Cure Peace, Ika Musume) as Haruka and Manabe is voiced by 12 year veteran Fukushima Jun. What's that, you haven't heard of him? You don't remember his incredible performance as "3rd Year Student" in Angel Sanctuary, Boy B in Boogiepop Phantom or Leo in FMA? Yeah, despite being around for quite a while, he's had very few roles. Then you have the much more recognizable Hanazawa Kana and Shimono Hiro as supporting characters along with almost total newbie Kubo Yurika, who's most noteworthy role is in Love Live.

[ookamigirl]

Poor Haruka, what awful parents.
The whole mind reading thing ruined her childhood.
First half was depressing, but then everything changed.
Manabe sure was a clingy friend, but also funny.
I thought this would be stupid and boring, I was wrong.
Will be watching this one!

[something]

Episode 1:

- Haruka can read minds. That always, always brings unhappiness.
- Wow, she really needs to learn a new superpower: SHUTTING UP.
- Holy shit what the the fuck is going on.
- Well that was the most thorough and brutal and relentless emotional beat-down of a character I've ever seen in a mere 10 minutes.
- So I guess the main reason her power is so troublesome is that she can't easily distinguish between what people say and their thoughts? Sometimes it seemed like that was the case, other times she was quite obviously aware that they were two different things. It's not really clear.
- Now to figure out just how quickly it's going to try to transform into the show we see i, the OP... Hopefully not too quickly, I'd like that to be something that is earned, after how much effort the story just went through to depict how completely utterly broken Haruka is.

- Lead male is perfect for her because his head is empty. >_>
- Surprised it took even three weeks for people to stop trying to talk to her.
- Man. Manabe's personality would be very annoying in most other shows, and might eventually get annoying in this, but for now at least, I actually really like him. She's so incredibly far gone that I don't think anyone but such an oddball could possibly open her up.
- Hahaha and this is also the best/most appropriate use of a perverted fantasy ever.
- ...Well there's one positive use of mind reading.
- Alright yeah she says she can't control the power at all, which means she sometimes can't hell the difference between what she should and shouldn't be hearing. I think that's more when she was younger, though, and now she can tell the difference. It's just that she didn't care anymore. She wanted people to stay away.

That was really damned good. I don't know how long it can keep up the drama, and I guess maybe it shouldn't because there's only so far you can go with it, but I really loved this episode. Watching Haruka re-integrate with society with the help of a pervert and some weirdos should be a lot of fun, and this show just put itself pretty high on my list of shows to pay special attention to in Winter 2013.

[Nico87]

Great first episode and I'll definitely stick with this one. I like that Haruka isn't all "check me out, I can read people's thoughts!", and I love how Yoshihisa is so impressed by her skill and so easger to get her attention ("Mornin'!" x 5 and the other stuff) after all the bad stuff she's been through.

The manga has only two volumes (soon three) which is a positive for me 'cause like hpulley said on another forum, stuff like Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun will have twelve volumes and the anime only adapted the first four. It's apparent that TKK was more of a wait-and-see with regards to a second season while Kotoura-san can only adapt two manga volumes. Not that Kotoura-san can't turn into a 5960 volume manga, but you get my drift. Makes much more sense to adapt what you have instead of adapting 25% of something and hope for enough sales to make a second season. I know the final volume of TKK will have a OAD, but who knows what that's going to be (my guess is a anime semi-original ending of some sort).

[Draneor]

The first half was very rage inducing and inflamed my misanthropy. None of humanity, except the grandfather, appears to be fit to live.

As for the second half, it was quite the contrast. That Yoshihisa is a pervert slightly annoys me. But even though he's hardly as bad as many, in this specific context it bothers me even more.

You have a girl who went through hell, betrayed by all, no one understands her, and no one gives a damn. That she hasn't yet slit her wrists is a miracle. All of a sudden Yoshihisa appears and accepts her as she is. How else could Haruka react to that but be happy? Humans are social creatures and not meant to live alone. Unfortunately, he also wants to sleep with her. Given Haruka's current state, I can't but see that as predatory. I don't know what direction the show is going to go, but it would seem difficult to produce a healthy relationship. And quite frankly, after all that, I don't know if Haruka could have one any time soon.

And that's why I wish he wasn't a pervert. Because it could have been a touching story of befriending someone different, rejected by society. Instead of befriending someone because he wants to sleep with her.

[something]

Originally Posted by Draneor

And that's why I wish he wasn't a pervert. Because it could have been a touching story of befriending someone different, rejected by society. Instead of befriending someone because he wants to sleep with her.

This strikes me as a deeply cynical reading. Isn't it obvious that while he is sexually attracted to her (which is an natural urge, not something you can really control, particularly when the other person can read your mind) he also cares about her as a person? There have to be less troublesome lays than Haruka, if fucking is all that matters. Besides, you've seen enough anime to know that there's simply no way he's going to be written as anything other than a Very Nice Guy. It would be some phenomenally shocking genre-bending for him to turn out to be a "predator" who is manipulating her for sex - in fact, the very premise of the show makes such manipulation impossible!

Frankly he's just what she needs right now. I don't think she would trust anyone who acted "normal" around her, because she's so used to being betrayed. Manabe on the other hand seems incapable of artifice (which is another reason why I think you have to take him at face value when he says he wants to help her and be her friend), which is kinda the whole character dynamic they're going for.

Regarding the first half, I think it's too much of an oversimplification to say that everyone around Haruka were simply horrible people. While we understand why Haruka acted like she did, to everyone else she just seems like a really nasty rumormonger with a creepy ability to know things she shouldn't know, and say things she shouldn't say. Even if what she said was always true, being true does not always mean it is appropriate to make it public. For example, the girls talking about boys they liked - Haruka was unambiguously in the wrong there, even though it wasn't her fault, per se. Being around someone like Haruka would be absolutely terrifying to any normal person, because we all have secrets we don't want others to know.

Her parents are obviously a much trickier case. It went by quickly, but I think the show did a good job of showing how deeply her behavior destroyed her mother, and how hard her mother tried to get her help. This doesn't excuse abandoning her, and I'm not going to nominate her for mother of the year by any stretch. But I think the depiction of her as emotionally weak is set-up for where they're going with her in the future - she's in the OP, so it's safe to say she'll be back in Haruka's life before the end. The only question is whether she'll earn the right to come back... I'm most certainly not giving her a free pass on that, to be clear.

As for the father, he gave up much sooner and had no major redeeming qualities depicted. I think it's safe to assume he's completely out of the picture now, and we should have no sympathy for him.

[Nikopol]

Ohhhh, wow, surprisingly excellent first episode. Only gave this a chance, after reading a review on some blog pretty much only by accident.

So they get the break the cutie trope out of the way in the first ten minutes. That was hard to watch, they went all out, even showing the last straw, when she didn't even get to have a friend from the animal world. Maybe it was manipulative, but it effectively made me accept and understand the emotional walls she put up around herself. It's amazing enough, that she kept going after all that. Well, the plot kind of needs her to, but still.

So now i'm wondering, where this show will take us and how they choose to balance the drama and the comedy. Especially after a show like Chu2, which imo had some problems combining these two aspects and bringing them to a satisfying finale.